Yay Christmas is coming! You can tell I’m excited once I start decorating myself like a Christmas tree.
I am loving the current return to 90s fashion. I grew up loving Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Alicia Silverstone, etc. I also loved the fashion but was always too young, under developed and insecure to wear it. Now that I'm actually confident enough to wear it (albeit too old) I'm really relishing this fashion moment. Crop top and pleather skirt from Aritzia. Fake suede Mary Janes from ShoeDazzle. Bonus libra necklace for that extra chola flavour.
Quick post while at the Skytrain. Picked up OCC Lip Tar in Queen at Sephora a couple weeks ago. It comes with a lip brush! Yay application just got a lot more convenient. Anyway the colour is a bright fuchsia which I like wearing with minimal war paint. It's a bit sticky on the lips at first but dries down nicely into a matte finish. Only needed two tiny drops to fill in my lips.
1995. When the shorts were high waisted and I was still an innocent thing.
This will not be very surprising to most people – especially those who know me in real life… but I was a nerd in high school. A full fledged one.
I was under-developed for my age, weighing a startling 70lbs when I started Grade 8. I wore kid size clothes until I was about 13 or 14 when I started wearing adult sized clothes anyway, often pinning them back to make them fit. My boobs didn’t grow to their full size until well into Grade 12. I wore thick wire rimmed glasses because my mom wouldn’t let me get contacts until I was 16. I was introverted, socially awkward, clumsy and uncoordinated but not in the cute romantic comedy sorta way.
Thankfully, I wasn’t picked on particularly. I wasn’t bullied – sure, there were a few mean girls who turned their attention to me once in a while. But no consistent barrage of threats, insults or violence. The few incidents that stick out in my mind: the time someone tried to steal my old jacket out of my locker, thereby bending the locker door to the point where it never quite fully closed again. The time a couple of the popular girls put gum in my hair while I sat in front of them during a school assembly. But those times were few and far in between. For the most part, I was left alone by them, ignored or maybe just never seen?
But worse than all of that, I was never seen by any of the boys in high school either. Being the typical teenager I was, I had major crushes. A couple boys in particular I was infatuated with for years. But none of them ever really noticed me: the little mouse of a girl in the corner. Or if they did like me back, it was for a split second before moving onto the prettier, more confident girls in school – many of whom were my friends (which hurt just a little bit more than if it was someone no one knew). Embarrassing confession: I didn’t get my first kiss until I was 18 and out of high school.
Well, that’s not true. Some boys did like me – the nerds like myself. Maybe they felt that I’d like them because I wasn’t so different from them. The awkward ones who were sweet but didn’t know how to smile or wink in a way that made my heart palpitate like whoa. They weren’t the ones I thought about for hours and wrote hundreds of pages about in the diaries I kept.
After high school, I ended up going out with too many boys, kissing too many of them and sleeping with more of them than I care to divulge. A big part of that behaviour was me making up for lost time. Trying to catch up on all the mistakes I didn’t make in high school – falling for the jerks who didn’t deserve me. Sleeping with someone, only to realize it just drove them away rather than made them stay.
I looked for validation in all the wrong ways. Kissing random boys just to prove to myself and the world that I was wanted. It took me a few more years to figure out the difference between liking someone for them or liking the validation they gave me.
What’s odd was that I never really liked or went out with any of the typically cute/hot guys. I was always attracted to the cute, smart and slightly geeky types. The Brandon Walshes of the world rather than the Dylan McKays. Or more accurately, the Duckies of the world rather than the Blanes. Give me a pair of glasses and a sarcastic sense of humour over washboard abs any day. I think I wanted to keep my expectations and hopes down so not to be disappointed by what I believed would ultimately lead to rejection.
I think, for a lot of people – myself included, who we were in high school is still in a tiny way who we think we are as adults. For all the friends I have, for the lovely husband who’s always by my side, for all of that, I still feel like that nerdy, awkward, insecure little 14 year old girl. I still find myself sometimes trying to prove to the world that I’m more than that girl now.
Last Christmas (I gave you my heart…), my sister in law gave me a Clarisonic Mia cleansing brush. While I definitely appreciated the gift, I just didn’t really feel like using it. But when my coworker told me last week about how she knew a girl who used it and saw amazing and quick results I was intrigued. So I dug it out of my bathroom cabinet and gave it a whirl for the first time today.
My skin has been gross ever since I got off birth control pills last year. It is oily and sensitive. It reacts to everything, even temperature and seasonal changes. And my cheeks breakout, yet they’ve got dry patches. Ugh. I’ve been wearing more and more foundation – something I used to never wear at all. So hopefully, this will be the answer to my prayers? We’ll see… Anyway, here’s where my skin currently is at:
Left side of my face, no makeup
Right side of my face, no makeup
As you can see, zits, pimples, enlarged pores and redness everywhere. It ain’t a pretty picture. I feel bad for my husband who has to wake up to this every morning. Yikes!
Immediately after using the Mia in the shower, I have a couple thoughts:
-I like that it’s timed to shut off after 1 minute. It helps me realize how little time I spend rubbing my cleanser into my face.
-My skin feel smoother – I guess the rotating brush also serves to exfoliate? Makes sense.
-My moisturizer seems to be sinking in better, but that may just be my imagination wanting to believe that the Mia will be making a big difference to my complexion.
PS: Finally got at my stache with a pair of tweezers. Ah, the peace of mind that comes with a hair free upper lip.
I know! I know! Where are all my posts? I’ve been shopping like a mad woman on a mission but I haven’t posted! I’m horrible. But the good news is that I have updated my wish list! Have you bought me anything lately?
So pretty. With China Glaze Golden Enchantment on top.
Shopping with Anna 